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Intruder
The is a recurring boss in the Gradius series. Description The Intruder is a fiery dragon-like creature which has made several appearances in the series and set the tradition of fire elemental creatures appearing as bosses, such as Phoenix and Volleone. It is also one of the few bosses in the series to get its own theme music, a piece called "Fire Dragon" which plays during its reappearance in the Gradius II's boss rush stage. In the Japanese version of Life Force, the Intruder, like the stage it's in, has been recolored blue. Attack patterns The Intruder will attempt to wrap himself around the player, occasionally breathing fire. In the original game, the Intruder's movements are fairly jerky and stiff, owing to limited programming of the era, but later games refined the programming to give it more fluid snakelike movement. In some games, the Intruder can physically crush the player with its body. Since it has relatively low health, however, this is somewhat unlikely. In the NES version of Life Force, only its head ever appears. Here he has a very simplistic attack pattern, which consists of breathing fire in the player's general area. It moves its neck up and down to try and match the player's vertical position. Although its fireballs are quite large, the Intruder's health is very low and it will usually go down without being much of an issue. In Gradius II, it gains the ability of splitting into three at low health. This naturally greatly increases the difficulty of the boss, each head needing to be eliminated on their own. Finally, in Gradius Gaiden, O.V.U.M. uses the image of the Intruder as a scare tactic against the player. Anime The Intruder appears in the first episode of the Salamander anime series. Its appearance is constantly teased throughout the episode, as it's shown freely moving around the Salamander planet and activating the Sharp Cross traps on its narrow tunnels. It finally makes a proper appearance at the end of the episode, protecting the Zelos Force and serving as the final enemy the heroes face. It proves to be a very strong foe, being impervious to all weapons, so Eddie Evans pulls a heroic sacrifice to destroy it from the inside. Similar lifeforms *There are smaller fire dragons that reside in other stars, suggesting several stages in the life cycle of this creature. These range from the smaller, weaker Fire Dragons that reside in small scale suns, to the multi-headed Vulture Dragon. *Similar looking creatures are used as living weapons in the Core Warship Deltatry, perhaps even being the same species. These particular dragons turn on their master upon his defeat, suggesting cruel treatment. Trivia *In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, a spell called "Salamander" summons an Intruder-like dragon that circles around its target, dealing massive fire damage. *In the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, there's a monster similar to the Intruder called Solar Flare Dragon. *In Axelay, the Intruder makes a cameo appearance in the Stage 5 (the lava stage) of the game. *In Gaiapolis, a 1993 arcade fantasy action role-playing game also by Konami, the player can summon an Intruder-like fire dragon for an ultimate attack. *In Ninja Cop, an Intruder-styled dragon makes an appearance as a summoned entity in a boss fight. *In Lightning Fighters, an Intruder-like special attack, called "Dragon Laser" can be used by the spaceship. *In Gradius Gaiden, a boss, the Deltatry, which is based on the Trigon fighter, uses an attack which summons Intruder-like dragons. Gallery SalamanderIntruder.gif|Arcade version NESInvader.gif|NES version IntruderSalamanderOVA.png|Intruder in the Salamander anime LavaDragonKing.png|Intruder in Solar Assault SolarFlareDragon.jpg|Solar Flare Dragon from Yu-Gi-Oh! InvaderHD.png|''Salamander HD Remaster'' Axelay Cameo.jpg|Intruder in Axelay Intruder - Gaiapolis - 01.png|Intruder-like summon spell in Gaiapolis Ninja Cop - Intruder-like.png|Intruder-like in Ninja Cop Intruder - Trigon - 01.png|Intruder-like special attack in Lightning Fighters Gaiden42.jpg|Intruder-like special attack in Gradius Gaiden Category:Gradius II bosses Category:Life Force bosses Category:Salamander bosses Category:Solar Assault bosses